King T

King T: Bass (Remix) and Payback’s a Mutha
From: Act a Fool [Capitol, 1988]
There’s no denying that NWA, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Ice-T hit huge on the hip hop scene from the West coast. But sometimes because of the hype that surrounded NWA and later the Ascendence of Death Row, some of the earlier names from the West Coast get forgotten. King T is still known by his peers and much of the game, but ask most about him and they’d assume you meant Ice T or were talking about TI.

Both of these tracks stand out both for their production and for his work on the mic. The production is done by both King T and DJ Pooh. It has a lot more in common with East Coast production and reminds me of Marley Marl who King T would later have produce for him o The Triflin’ Album, King T’s third LP. These songs have much more in common with Tone Loc and Young MC then they do with the gangsta movement of NWA.

On Payback’s a Mutha one of his first singles King T absolutely destroys the track. It’s hard not to recall Marley Marl again and think of the rhymes of Big Daddy Kane even though King T beat Kane to the punch by 2 years. On King T’s second album At Your Own Risk Ice Cube was featured on the track Played Like a Piano. The two sound similar the way they hit their rhymes and spend most of the time sounding like their about to take a bat to you.

In 1989 King T appeared on the posse cut We’re All in the Same Gang, a cut produced by Dre and featuring nearly everyone from MC Hammer to Ice-T and Shock G. Later he would sign to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath and was yet one of the many artists who failed to put out an album on the label finally releasing his album The Kingdom Come.